New 60 series 15" performance tire

[racemor]

I posted this to the Pelican board a couple of weeks ago and did not get much response. Thought I'd try here:

It's getting close to time for new rubber and I noticed that there is finally a new 15 inch 60 series tire on the market, the BFGoodrich g-Force Sport. I love my Bridgestone S03s and would not expect these to perform at that level. But I would like the look of a 60 series tire on my early car with 15x7s and it may help the ride a little after the new stiff torsion bars and shocks. Plus, at $65 a tire I could put the difference in cost from the S03 toward a set of sticky tires for track and autocross.

Anybody have any experience the this new BFG?

[GreenT]

I've had these in a 205/60x15 size on deep sixes for a few months and love them. The distributor told me Goodrich is owned by Michelin now and that these G-force tires are a brand new internal design with the latest in silica compounds. Also reasonably priced and a good looking sidewall too. I had the S03's on another car. They are good tires, wonderful for handling but wear out in no time. The problem with S03's is like a lot of the recent tread styles on performance directional tires. They can't be rotated side to side and so wear unevenly and start cupping, usually on the inside edge. This makes for harmonics and they become so noisy they drive you crazy. I barely got 15k miles out of the S03's for this reason. The G-force tires are the 'next generation' in edge design and compound to avoid this. So far, I love 'em and could almost buy two sets for the price of the Bridgestones. One other plus on the G-force is they have a sidewall design that gives a little extra protection at the rim as a guard against curb rash.

[racemor]

Same here on the wear of the S03. I run 7" Fuchs on my car and the extra camber wore the insides quickly. But I sure liked the traction, especially in the wet. I like the S03's rim protector too. But I think I'd like to get back to a taller tire this time. Thanks for the input John.

[Chuck Miller]

I agree with all that has been said...

The rears of my first set of S03's went away at 5700 miles ... I run about 2 degrees in all way around.... and ...running lunch laps at CA Speedway hard enough to roll rubber off'm probably didn't help...

Bought new rears, and am still running the same fronts... stickiest street tire I've ever run...

Before running the 205x55 / 225x50 SO3's I ran (more then 4 sets) Yok - AVS Interm. at 205x60 and 215x60 and REALLY miss the look and the smooth ride.
(I have RS flares and 8's in the rear)

Looking on the Tire Rack web site I only see the G-Forces in 205x60 and not in 215x60 .............. to bad

[racemor]

Yeah Chuck, 215 would be perfect, but 205/60 would work on my 7" rims, right? Or would they look too skinny on the 7s?

Looking at the specs, it does not give a tread width, but does give section width of 8.2" and overall diameter of 24.7". The 205/55 S03 I've been running has a section width of 8.4" (tread width is 7.6") and overall diameter of 23.9" The 24.8 would help fill the wheel well a little better for the aesthetics but lose a little acceleration. That's ok, the short, sticky tires will get put on when the autocross clock is running.